Page 107 of Bourbon and Secrets

He clears his throat. “I suppose it might be worth seeing for yourself.” Then he nods to my sister. “Both of you.”

I pass it to Maggie as tears fall down my cheeks and run down my neck. I don’t understand and look toward my sister, whose eyes are glassy too. “Maggie? Did you know?”

She covers her mouth. “No,” she says with a curt shake of her head.

“I made a promise to someone I fell in love with and couldn’t keep safe,” Griz says, looking down at his empty ring finger. “I never planned to fall in love again. I’d had a great love and lost her. I had made peace with that.” Shaking his head, he blinks away the sheen in his eyes. “But your mother—There was just something about the way that woman would talk and smile. It was like a magnet. I couldn’t stay away from her. I had no business with a woman so much younger, but she told me I made her feel safe. And those words from any woman are powerful. Even more than hearing ‘I love you.’” He smiles fondly, and it has another tear trailing down my cheek. “And she said that eventually too.”

He sits on the open chair, clearing his throat and leaning forward, elbows braced on his knees. “Wheeler Finch is not a good man. It’s why we always opened our door to Hadley. He has never been a good father to her. And she didn’t want to be around her dad, especially when he was conducting business.” He looks at me when he says, “Your mama got wrapped up with Finch & King because she was a damn good horse trainer. Tullis sunk his teeth into her, and I sure as hell don’t know what she ever saw in him, but he convinced her he was in love with her and that she needed him. Made her believe he could help her thrive in that business.”

Pausing, he swallows roughly before continuing. “We all knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t know your mother very well back then, but anyone who paid attention had thought so—Marla, Romey, Prue. All of them shared with her later that theyknew Tullis was trouble. In hindsight, what would they have said?”

I answer him, “It wouldn’t have mattered. She was stubborn and he manipulated her, gaslit her, for far too long.”

“Tullis might have had a reputation as one of the best horse trainers, but that was where the good ended. Both of the King brothers and Wheeler Finch turned Kentucky horse racing into a billion-dollar empire, which made them untouchable.” He looks over at Maggie. “You can imagine that Wheeler wasnothappy to discover when Tullis left. Cops called it a missing persons case after random credit cards being used at motels throughout the southeast stopped happening after about a year and a half?—”

“Two years,” I correct him. With all eyes on me now, a little bit of truth wouldn’t hurt to slip through.

Griz thinks for a moment about what I’ve said, but instead of asking questions, he carries on. “Two years and then he had been presumed dead. But his brother, Waz, was always adamant that your mother had something to do with it. Kept that rumor going for a long while. And that eventually he’d find proof of it, too.”

Waz is a psychopath, plain and simple.

“She told me what happened, what Waz had done to Tullis. How he threatened your mama and you girls.” He runs his hand over his mustache and down his chin. “When he caught wind that something had been going on with us, he tried to blackmail her in other unsavory ways. That was what tipped things over for me and for her. I knew I couldn’t protect her. Not back then. I had to look out for my boys. Lincoln had just lost his wife. He was trying to navigate that with two small girls. And Grant was still spiraling after Fiona’s death.” He glances at Bea in a quiet exchange. When he looks back at me, he says, “So I made a choice and called in a favor. A really big fucking favor.”

Feeling overwhelmed, I shake my head because, truthfully, this was too much. I need it spelled out. “Griz, what are you telling us here?”

“That your mother is alive and well,” Bea answers.

Maggie leans back, hand covering her mouth as she mumbles, “Oh, my god.” My eyes connect with Maggie’s, and all I can manage to do is shake my head. That can’t be right. My throat is dry, and it feels like someone shoved me, knocking the wind right from my chest.

“The only thing I have ever known how to do well is make bourbon,” Griz adds. “I didn’t know how to keep her safe.” He looks up, trying to keep himself from letting any tears escape. “Girls, not a single day goes by when I don’t wonder if I’d made the right choice to stay behind. Without her.”

Bea cuts in, “And now you have an opportunity to see her. If you both want to, I’ll take you to her.”

My stomach sinks, warring with my chest that feels light and my head that feels dizzy at everything that’s just transpired.

Harper glances at Griz and then back at me. “This is not protocol and, truthfully, I’ve bent so many rules at this point I’m skating legal lines.” She gives Griz a tight-lipped smile before she moves toward the door at the far side of the room. “Maggie can’t come out of this room if she wants to be folded into WITSEC.” She looks at Maggie. “You have a lot of shit piled high right now, kid. It’ll make it a lot harder to get you out of here and a good cover story if you decide not to do it now.”

Maggie nods and looks at me, her eyes rimmed red. “Okay.”

“Faye, we have a small window of time to pull this off,” Bea tells me.

“I can’t just leave,” I say, raising my hands to my side as I start to follow. “Lincoln?—”

“...will understand,” Griz assures me. “Go and see her. Tell her there isn’t a day that doesn’t pass by when I don’t think of her.”

Chapter 39

Lincoln

Still groggyfrom nodding off on the hospital waiting room chair, it takes me a minute to register what Griz is saying. I clear my throat, sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

Griz crosses his arms and stands in front of the three of us, the same way he used to do when one of us was in trouble. But it’s the look on his face that has my chest tight. Sad and nervous about something.

“Griz, the fuck is going on?” Grant asks, standing beside me.

Ace leans forward, elbows on his knees, and looks down as if he already knows what’s coming.

With his focus on me, Griz says, “What happened tonight is going to cause a chain reaction of events. There’re things that I can’t share with you boys.” He looks down and rubs at the back of his neck. “Linc, you know what Maggie had been doing—digging into Finch & King, but her reason why?—”

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